No, it’s part of normalizing sexual behavior for children. You know, similar to how they’ve told generations of young girls the baby they’re carrying is a clump of cells. Many schools are using the “genderbread person” and the “gender unicorn” to teach young, impressionable children there can be any number of genders, one can change genders if they feel like it and sexual diversity. A kindergarten teacher had a “transition ceremony” that scared the crap out of some students. That’s what kindergartners should know, right?

Some schools aren’t informing parents or allowing parents to opt-out. How do we know teachers aren’t talking with students about transgender issues and will there soon be bills proposed forcing schools to indoctrinate our children? CA and MN already have laws forcing the teaching of gender identity, National Review has an in-depth article about this happening all across the nation. It is wrong and should be left up to parents to teach.

Pat, why would you be against protecting children from being indoctrinated by sexual deviants? It may not be happening in our schools yet, but it is happening elsewhere in our country and has become an issue in Canada. I applaud our legislators for taking preemptive action.

Local control should mean parental control. This bill is to protect parents ability to control what kind of crap is feed to their children while attending government schools. All too often the parents find out after the fact. Then it is too late. Limited government means limiting what schools can push down kids throats. There is an argument that these kind of issues, at less than appropriate age level, is child abuse. Are you saying a limited government should not intervene when children are being abused? Please reconsider your position.

Pat, my argument is that finding out after the fact is too late. While we are at it, perhaps it is time to remove all sex education from our schools. Look at the sex crazed society that has been created by liberals, who are now using that environment to destroy lives of those who have adopted their lifestyle.

But it’s NOT HAPPENING in SOUTH DAKOTA.
Steve should we also adopt the same laws as Massachusetts? You argue about locality- why are you trying to preempt something happening half the country away in a more liberal leaning area of the country? Are you atop the slippery slope waiting for the landslide?

If local control is parental control – get involved with a school board or PTA.

If we wanted loons teaching our children, evolution wouldn’t be taught in schools in South Dakota. And just because you’d want your child shielded from something doesn’t mean I, as a parent, wouldn’t want my child exposed to it.

If you want to know what your children will be taught prior to them learning about it – get involved in the classroom, have conversations with teachers, get involved.

If you’re concern is local control – there are things parents can actually do without having to pass laws or regulations. When you continuously push the burden to someone else – you’re a part of the problem.

If you care about the education of your child get involved in the process or be apart of the problem. My counsin’s email with the children’s teachers if they can’t make conferences – in fact they get weekly emails on performance and materials to be discussed in the next few weeks.

So you’re saying we can’t trust schools and teachers anymore, got it. Get involved because parents have no clue what’s being taught to students? I thought current curriculum was to teach the basics, that’s not happening. Some teachers spend most of the day teaching basic hygiene or struggle with how to get past the language barrier.

If you received emails that included everything teachers discuss in class it would be very lengthy and teachers would spend hours preparing it, don’t be ignorant. Kindergartners should not be exposed to sexual orientation at our public schools.

I agree; do you make a law against murder until someone is murdered? (An exaggerated example to prove a point). The entire nation’s public school is moving in this insane direction so I don’t see any problem with heading this off at the pass.

Having family members who teach, and actually growing up with a South Dakota education, I will always support raising wages for teachers. Because there is nothing more important than having an educated workforce no matter what part of the workforce you’re in.

8:52 – Search for studies presenting info/stats proving by throwing $$ into edu. or increasing teachers pay helps students get better scores or increase IQ levels. You go check or ask your family members, you’ll find nothing is changing no matter how much money is dumped into our school system. If this actually happened, I’d support increases too.

Private school and home-school students’ scores show what you want and wish the public schools would be doing. Don’t be ignorant to think bad teachers don’t exist. How about a week long of videos, that’s always educational and fun.

Abortion is an evil in society, so I don’t see your point on that. Also, I don’t think it is the job of the public education system to try to normalize abnormality. A boy is a boy and HE will always be a boy. A girl is a girl and SHE will always be a girl. Common sense and worthy of protection.

So it’s okay to let our children not accept kids with autism, kids with 3 thumbs, kids with brain cancer, kids with gay parents, kids who are lactose intolerant, and kids with hearing aids, since none of them are “normal”?

I don’t want the gubmint schools trying to teach kids that this is right and good; it is not. Why do they try to counsel those who cut themselves? Why not just tell them that it is a normal lifestyle and that it should be accepted?

The old liberal, idiot argument: equating a mental illness that causes you to think you’re a boy when you are a girl and vice versa, with cancer, autism, etc.. If you can’t understand that it is immoral to accept as normal and natural that a boy thinks he’s a girl then until you get some fundamental foundational beliefs you can’t be taught. You are lost. Anything goes and is acceptable as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. There are eternal consequences for things whether you believe it or not. Someday you will find out the truth.

Notions about sex and gender are being taught to young children. If it’s not yet being taught to children in South Dakota, it’s naive to believe that that it won’t be here soon. Activists have created child-friendly graphics for this person, such as the “Gingerbread Person.” I invite you to Google the term. Look at the child-friendly graphics. It’s been used for years.

Today, the Gingerbread Person is considered outdated. Educators now opt for the “Gender Unicorn” which was created by Trans Students Education Resources (TSER). Consistent with evolving transgender beliefs, the Unicorn has a body shape that doesn’t appear either male or female. Again I invite you to Google the term and look at the child-friendly graphics.

I have no idea if this bill will pass, but the reality is material is being disseminated to young schoolchildren. To not recognize that, at very least, it is happening elsewhere, is to ignore the very real threat to our children.

Ideology concerns about confusing messages schoolchildren receive when they are taught that gender is fluid, falls along a spectrum, and is essentially detached from bodily, physical sex is very real. Children are especially vulnerable. I believe it is proper and right for the legislature to do everything possible to protect them and provide environments that promote healthy development.

South Dakotans can and must respect the dignity of children that identify as transgender, but without trampling on the needs and interests of all other children.

And we need to acknowledge that taking our sexual embodiment seriously in public policy is not discriminatory.

Stuart what would be the best course of action for these individuals who identify as gay, lesbian or transgender? conversion therapy? eletro-shock therapy? lobotomy? placed in the care of one of our state hospitals?

Prove it. What doctors are advocating for shock therapy and then using it on children concerning gender questions. I think it’s the opposite happening. Children can be taken from parents who don’t allow for hormone therapy. You should do some research, may I suggest listening to Blair White. Blair is a trans male to female and is deeply against this happening to children.

Transgender medicine — the recommended four-step treatment for children consists of a process that begins with social transition, then moves to puberty blockers, then cross-sex hormones, and finally surgery to remove breasts or penis, or attempt to fashion a penis. Activists want to see this “standard of care” mainstreamed and mandated. They want to have the government force all healthcare plans to pay for it, and to force all relevant physicians to perform it.

Transgender policy includes access to sex-specific facilities and programs, the lessons that children are taught in school about gender, the criminalization of “misgendering” someone, and the provision of desired medical services. And transgender policy follows from transgender ontology: People must be treated according to their self-declared “gender identity,” not their biological sex.

In all these areas, concerns about religious liberty, parental authority, and even privacy and public safety fall by the wayside—and that’s why you see so much push-back.

Religious Liberty: Is someone going into your homes or places of worship and telling you how to worship or raise your child according to your beliefs? Unless your breaking the law there should be no issue here.

Parental Authority: Would you please explain what you feel is a threat in this area?

Then I should get the right to tell the teacher not to try to brainwash my child with the nonsense that is being put forth. My child should not be in trouble if they use ‘he’ and ‘she’. Did you see what the little silver spooner, Trudeau, did to that poor lady in Canada who dared use the term ‘mankind’. Now there is an idiot who followed in his awful daddy’s footsteps.

Possibly at the school board level. I’d argue that’s more likely an erroneous decision. What are my choices if the school my children attend decide to teach transgenderism and I want to opt out? What other options do I have? Would we now be forced to move or drive from SF to Tea? Home-school? The safety concerns pushed aside, mentioned by Stuart, must also be considered. Please, engulf yourself with more research.

Try your best to keep up, I know it’s difficult when walls are already up.

A bill prohibiting the teaching of transgenderism (medically recognized gender dysphoria) in public schools (K-7) is being proposed in Pierre. PP suggests it could be better addressed at the local level, I disagree. I encourage diversity of thought but, I’m not sure that’s what you want to contribute. Thanks;)

The Heritage Foundation held an event with a panel that included: Michelle Cretella, M.D., the president of the American College of Pediatricians, Paul Hruz, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of Pediatrics, Endocrinology, Cell Biology and Physiology at Washington University’s medical center, and Allan Josephson, M.D., a professor and division chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Louisville. There’s a video, it’s worth watching.

Regardless of the merits of transgender ideology, Pat is right that local control applies here. If you believe in limited government and local control, you can’t be for it only when the local government agrees with you. It also has to be when it disagrees with your particular view.

And as is common with the subject, it is a solution in search of a problem. There may be literature available online, but show me an instance of it being used in South Dakota.

State sponsored perversion and sexual deviancy is not a matter of local control. Protecting young minds from the government sponsored propaganda of transgender activists is a legitimate state interest.

Show us where this is taking place in South Dakota, and the school board has refused to act. Until then, it’s no better than spending money on radar defense against UFO attacks. It hasn’t happened yet, but it could, and protecting young children from UFO attacks is legitimate state interest.

It’s like demanding legislators be drug tested. It’s a big government solution in search of a problem. Used to be Republicans tried to cut Government.

We have plenty of issues that are occurring right now to deal with. We don’t need to make up stuff that isn’t happening in South Dakota.

Pat, when you were raising your children, did you establish rules to keep them sage, or did you wait until one was injured before you acted? With your UFO analogy you want readers to think that there is no harm possible to our children. Transgender ideology is real. Establishing rules to prevent harm is always better than waiting until there is harm, especially when it comes to our children.

The headline is very misleading, the bill says K through 7th grade. I wish it said K-12. This bill is very much needed. If it isn’t happening yet in SD, I guarantee it will be soon. But we know what will happen : The Gov’s office will order it killed, and the Peters/Soholt crew will cry it isn’t needed , and the sponsors are homophobes, etc,etc. Which opens the door for lefty teachers throughout the state to start cramming it down the minds of impressionable young minds.

Let’s say you homeschooled your child and somehow totally isolated your child from the outside world or any source of news or exposure of anything LGBTQ related. All the sudden your child starts showing signs of what you fear most. What would you do? It can happen and it is your choice in how to handle it they best way you can while loving your child but it can happen.

7:39 – If you present a situation that’s grossly unlikely to happen, should we even address it? “fear most”…care to elaborate? Are you stereotyping? We’re conservative and if any of our children came to us with “what you fear most”, we’d certainly embrace them. Your perception is misguided.

Many parents embrace their children’s’ thoughts and questions. Our 12yo had questions about 69ers because others on the school bus were talking about it, so we listened and responded. Turns out some said you could get pregnant while engaged with this activity. We cleared that up.

Home-school parents generally don’t isolate their children and any reasonable person knows that. They along with parents who choose private schools talk with their kids, but I guarantee you transgenderism is not discussed under middle school age. Want to know why, because children are extremely impressionable and should stay focused on playing and learning the core academic basics.

This cuts both ways. There can just as likely be some parents making their children social experiments projecting onto their children their own challenges. At some point, we need to trust the trained people on the ground to make decisions.

Frankly, I do not want a law that prevents a teacher or counselor telling a whiny boy to “Grow up and be a man.” This bill criminalizes what too many of our boys need to hear, especially if they are being raised without a good male role model by a single mother struggling to keep food on the table.

Laws are about their words. This bill is very clear: No. None. Nada instruction on gender identity or expression may be given. Telling a boy to grow up and be a man is EXACTLY instruction on gender identity.

This is huge. As I read the comments I’m really struck by how so many of you have been mistreated, robbed, raped, and murdered by gays and trannies. “Gender Identity” is a rampant problem that will most certainly turn South Dakota into a desert wasteland.

Pat, you and I both are married to educators. Ask your wife if she has been exposed to transgender ideology at state or national workshops. Mine has. The transgender unicorn is in South Dakota. Probably in Brookings. You should find out.

Thanks 8:57 – I hope Pat follows through with your suggestion. I know it’s tough to research Republican’s serious, legitimate concerns/issues when insulting Hubbel, Tapio, Nelson and continually promoting FB pages takes precedence. But hey, this is the #1 political website so it must be necessary.

Perception is important. Maybe Tapio’s posts are more click bait than insulting, but you surely aren’t very neutral when presenting some of our concerns about refugee resettlement programs here in SD.

The link Steve provided is a great place to start so to realize how this issue is currently very loose in its definition and SD teachers certainly have the go-ahead to discuss transgenderism in Kindergarten. Last night, a mayoral candidate mentioned these type of bills not being necessary either, hope they are here educating themselves.

“Curricular materials are free of culturally biased information, but also include information, activities, and examples that are inclusive of diverse cultures and lifestyles such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, physical/mental ability, and appearance.”

This is how Washington State has began the process to introduce the issue of transgender to kindergarteners:

Last year Washington State implemented a new curriculum derived from Common Core to teach transgenderism to kindergarteners. This coming fall every public school in the state will begin teaching children as young as five that “there are many ways to express gender.” To make this lesson plan fit the mold of Common Core curriculum standards, education legislators had to contradict the state’s own definition of gender as a biological, not social construct, a move they justified as “supportive of classroom instruction.”

“…the headline itself is simply false: The “state” doesn’t “teach” transgenderism. A simple reading of the standards shows that the state — because of state law — is responsible for establishing and periodically revising state learning standards. It’s up to districts to adopt curricula, and it’s up to teachers in schools to teach the material. … Districts decide which topics will be taught: A district can decide that its community norms don’t include self-identity, and thus it won’t be taught.“

Well, Steve… try reading the article and it fully explains how standards are different from topics. “Transgenderism” is a topic, and is therefore not required to be taught – they leave that up to the districts to determine.

I mean, I get how world-shattering it can be for you to have the possibility of little Billy wearing a dress and playing with Barbie dolls. Have you thought about suing Caitlyn Jenner for your loss of health and property? I’m sure she’s damaged you greatly.

So if just a few parents explain to their children that boys are boys and girls are girls, and anyone who says otherwise is saying stupid things, the five year olds, having no filter at all, will announce “that’s stupid!”
in class. Any teacher who tries to continue the class will have to deal with the disruption.
You’ll only need a couple of pint-sized agitators to pull this off. They will be sent to the principal’s office, the parents will be called, and the parents, on arrival at the school, will proceed to call the principal, the teacher, and anybody else in the office “stupid.”
Since teachers are not paid enough to put up with that, The gender studies classes will be cancelled. They will have to focus on bullying instead, trying to teach the kids that calling people stupid is not nice, even if Mom just called everybody in the office that.

Regarding your Washington State example, Common Core does not require teaching of transgenderism. However, the State of Washington Department of Education did require them to specifically incorporate the National Sexuality Education Standards under their education standards.

If you get wind, our Department of Education (or any school board) is going to advocate this crazy stuff I will have your back.

Punching Down!! An attempt by a majority group who feels threatened by a perceived “political correctness gang mentality” to attack those of a weaker political posture. E.G. – This bill telling trained educational professionals how to teach and “punching down” at students who don’t act the way the majority deems proper.

Actually SD ranked #1 last year for INward migration. I believe it’s because this is a safe space for people of conservative values and hard working people.

The people of this state voted into the constitution that marriage was only between a man and woman. Ultimately this issue will suffer the same fate from the same judicial branch and no state law will do anything other than speed up that process.